VN - Ren'Py - The Roommate [v0.12.11] [togs]

A lot of grainy/pixelated renders early on, but the quality does get better later on.

Story is bit of a mixed bag. It starts of itself rather simple. MC becomes a leading figure in a big corporation and lives with a cute girl whilst romancing some of the office girls. Why I liked a lot! Down to earth and simple.

Buuuut then it starts to get crazy with the story getting a bit more 'fictional' or 'unrealistic' or 'borderline ridiculous' (depends on your interpretation).
>The MC apparently has access to a Matrix world
>genetically modified humans designed to satisfy MC
>some sort of secret order/sisterhood hiding in your office
>apparently the roommate has been artificially created to be your ideal partner
>something about an evil uncle making a drug that makes women get big tits and lactate like cows
>MC has some sort of rare disease so he has to impregnate a bunch of sisters or he dies (I'm not joking lol, I really need what the dev is smoking).

Idk I guess I just found the sci-fi direction a bit too abrupt. Sometimes writers do too much or overthink certain scenarios when a basic premise would've been more suitable. YMMV, I just think the early game plot was much better with the focus more on the girls.

Why piqued my interest was that the overview noted that this is "less linear" than other games and the gameplay section seemed to indicate the inclusion of important choices. You are even giving warnings that choices matter.

I've gone through multiple playthroughs and different dialogue options but I don't see any evidence of this. You are presented with a lot of choices but these choices don't really lead to significantly different outcomes. For example picking monogamous relationship is the most worthless thing in this game. Quite frankly, every girl you pursue an exclusive relationship with (just Kari & Lois atm) is completely fine if you bang other woman (so why give us that monogamous option? seems like an illusion of choice).
Even if you try to break things off with Kari, she till hangs around the apartment and you get a lot of dialogues as if you're in a relationship with her.
There is no difference in terms of scenes or plot if you pick "Mistress" or "non-exclusive gf" or "exclusive gf", these are all the same with the same exact scenes although there is just a slight difference in dialogue but about 95-98% of the writing is the same.
For example, there is a scene where """monogamous""" Kari finds MC cheating on her with Lois so she starts tearing and angrily stated that she wont let Lois steal him... but this goes nowhere. Next scene they meet, she is perfectly happy with Lois, pretends nothing happened, and there is another scene in the hospital where """monogamous""" Kari was about to have a threeway with Lois/MC.
The only thing that made a difference was picking which secretary you want to hire but they don't play a huge part in the game atm.

I'm confused about this as the game seems to be marketing itself as a VN where choices matter. But as you can tell from this review and multiple other reviews below this, it definitely isn't that sort of game. I guess he found out how complex it is to code all the variables with the multiple relationship routes or maybe just thought a linear harem direction would be more easier/popular. I think its the standard "initially overpromising a bunch of features, finds out its actually hard to achieve, begins simplifying/dumbifying the game to a much less ambitious standard".

*****
TLDR; renders grainy in the beginning but better later on, story is satisfactory but gets more unrealistic/sci-fi later on, illusion of choice to an extreme degree (presenting a lot of choices but most of these choices dont really change the outcome of anything nor does it have plot-related or relationship-related consequences).
*****

It's worth a play through for sure. Has some unique concepts. My only real glaring issue with this game is the sarcastic humor but that is more so a personal preference. I could stand one character being like that but it seams that as soon as initial personas are introduced they end up being swept up in the devs form of sarcasm. I will very likely play it again once more additions have been made.

Interesting game.

Girls are too numerous but you only have real relationships with 2 (at least in my save game) so it's okay.

Lois is a very interesting character (I hope there will be a way to make her the wife, because she is no trophy but damn, that brain and hopefully the breast treatment mk 2 thing is not just a dialogue because i would be interested to see how it would impact her).

I find that the pacing is good.

The bothering thing is the vanilla sex scenes with Kari and the feeling I had that the game had a repetitive morning (jerk of or not) which was boring, and repetitive.

I hope the game gets polished as it continues.

I also hope that not every man encountered in travel will become a random joke (like the clerk in London, a pervert fired due to our MC being the saint for Kiki, Marcus being fire due to our MC being the saint for Shae, etc.).

Edit: removing a star because the game is falling a bit more in the "adding lots of girls for free sex with mc" kind and that's not good.

This game pretty much feels like it was made for me but that's not to say that the rating is pure personal preference. There's a nice variety among the girls, excellent felxibility in how you engage with them and the writing is good with a nice rythm between plot and plot. If I have any concerns I guess it'd be that all these options will make the game sprawling and difficult for the developer but for now it's amazing.

A collection of nice elements mashes together crudely and make for staccato gameplay.

There's a lot to like about this game, which only makes the way it fails to come together all that more disappointing.

The character models are good and rather unique, but the promise isn't followed up. The introduction suggests a level of customization to the MC (from age, their attitude towards women, and their level of machismo), but then this is largely discarded. There is an illusion of choice, with the game promising different routes and interactions, but then most of it is forgotten.

The graphics are, for the most part, good enough. The models are relative varied with distinct faces. There are some instances of animation, but they're simply not enough of them or done well enough to really earn praise for them. But the characters are appropriately beautiful, and the environments and assets are used well. There's not much to complain on a technical level, except perhaps for the game's total lack of sound.

To the writer's credit, there is a fair amount of content to this game. There's no shortage of actual scenes, tackling an abundance of topics, and all of it is written at least passably, without anything too jarring to immediately take you out of the moment.

The story is rather boilerplate for games of this genre. The MC is an executive who moves to Seattle from LA to start a new job at your great uncle's company. He's evidently very attractive, since all the good-looking women he encounters start lusting after him very quickly despite him barely needing to do anything. He's supposedly very wealthy, with over ten million dollars in an investment account, even though he lives off a much more modest salary (that never runs out regardless) and is forced into a homely two-bedroom, one-bathroom condo with the previous occupant already inside. And he's clearly well-connected, with him being promoted into CEO despite doing fuck all with his time all day long.

In other words, very little differentiates him from the myriad of wish-fulfillment MCs out there.

The story meanders for a long time, in part because the MC never really needs to struggle for anything save for the fact that, despite his millions, he has to sleep on the couch of the condo he apparently owns but lets a stranger stay in for free.

The women in the game are pretty bland and inoffensive. Though, outside of Lois who is reasonably interesting but blatantly a manic pixie dream girl, the other women are largely underdeveloped. There's potential there, though clearly hackneyed and wish-fulfillment-y, but as of 0.7.2, it's mostly unactualized.

The MC is supposed to be customizable, with you being able to play a wide range of ages, but clearly the story is designed for him to be right around the age the game suggests (30), as Mallory is supposed to be six years older and Kari a few years younger. Making the MC in his upper 40s makes no sense with the former, likewise making him close to 18 makes no sense with the latter. He's ostensibly customizable, but the women mostly treat him as if he's this remarkable gentleman, despite the fact that he apparently thinks spying on women showering is supposed to be normal. It's this inability to settle between more serious storytelling and generic porn tropes that plague the story. At times the game takes itself too seriously for the kind of brushed-under-the-rug porno tropes littered throughout.

Despite the promise of customization and choice, you spend most of the day sitting on the couch reviewing documents, while the women in your life compete for your attention without any real effort on the account of the MC.

Kari, the roommate, is an attractive redhead who is clearly too naive to be functioning. She apparently knows absolutely nothing about sex (yeah, right), yet is still able to dress provocatively and vigorously guard her virginity against anyone other than the MC who threatens to take it. With the MC, however, she offers (and then rescinds) to fuck on the first date. She doesn't really have much of a personality, other than as someone who makes the MC his daily coffee—yes, even if he says he prefers tea. She's this attractive prize that the MC can protect and control.

The other girls in the game are largely background filler:


Lois [Olivia Laine] is largely the highlight of the story, since she's the only woman with an ounce of personality even if she comes with a host of writing flaws. She teases and sasses the MC, challenges him, and basically runs his company so he can continue to pursue all the women in his life without any real responsibilities. But she's also painfully inexperienced despite her penchant for bralessness and plunging necklines. She's apparently "abused" (read, raped) so badly in her childhood that she needed a hysterectomy, which is why she's never bothered to pursue a relationship. But as soon as the MC comes along, she throws herself at him. Her trauma is treated as background information for the MC to earn by unlocking the story, rather than any part of her character that might, for even a moment, inconvenience the porn.

The storyline starts off relatively mundane, if a bit privileged and unrelatable, but then quickly spirals off into la la land. Apparently, the Great-Uncle in the story, that bequeaths his fortune and position to the MC, has a massive breast fetish and obsession that results in him abusing a bunch of well-endowed orphans and forcing them to take a highly addictive, experimental breast growth and lactation drug that basically turns them into cows, and then brushes all of this under the rug. Despite the fact that there are apparently thousands, if not tens of thousands, of women forced into mass-producing milk in underground facilities, he's still viewed as a "good guy who lost his way" (yeah, ok).

Now, as his heir, you the MC inherit all of these farms complete with thousands of offscreen big-tittied, brain-addled women. It's clearly done for the kink, but in the worst possible way. Most of the hucows are only referenced and not actually available for any fulfillment or pleasure, while there's this mood-killing sense of seriousness as the game understandably questions the morality of getting thousands of unsuspecting women addicted for life and reducing their entire existence to mere chattel.

And if unpacking all of that isn't bad enough, now the MC evidently has a rare but fatal genetic disorder that supposedly led to the deaths of his parents, with the only cure being embryonic stem cells from his own offspring with girls (including Kari) who were bred specifically for him. So now the MC is obligated to impregnate the roommate, who was born and manipulated to be in his life, along with a set of her sisters (inventively named Kara, Kira, and Kiri). It's as big of a mess as it sounds, and no less ridiculous when it unfolds in game.

All things considered, it becomes very difficult to give the game more than a 3-star rating. There's a lot of potential, if the developer can iron out some of the flaws, streamline the storytelling, flesh out the women, and add some real sense of player agency. As it stands, it's a poor balance between serious spy drama and gonzo porn, with dreams of grandeur from the former and girls from the latter.

This is one of those weird games when it should be better than it is. All the elements are there to be a decent fapping game with an okay story but there are just too many inconsistencies.

The choices, while sort of important, don't really work very well. A silly example is if you say, early in the game, that you hate coffee and only like tea, for the rest of the game Kari, continues to make coffee. Or, if you chose black coffee, the MC asks for a little milk, even though milk was an option previously.

If you ignore Kari and treat her like crap, she still falls in love with you and if you turn her down, there will still be an option later for the MC to tell her he loves her.

Same with Lori, you tell her the clothes she wears in not appropriate for work, and yet she continues to where the same stuff. You try to treat her professionally, and she is all offended you are not falling in love with her.

Obviously, the dev wrote everything on the assumption the player would not actually turn away a relationship with these women, which is perfectly fine, but you should either take the time and code the game for all of the choices, or just make it a VN and call it a day.

On a positive note, the dev is talented and the renders are pretty good and the content is okay. Nothing horrible here, but just a little more effort and this could be a pretty good game.

Reviewing: ver 0.7.1

You are the great grandson of the last CEO and you were transferred to Seattle after having success at leading one of the branch offices, where you then meet and live with an intern at the company Kari. After the first few days or weeks you learn that you will be appointed CEO and you take charge of the company gaining a new secretary and the power to change the company which you do as you go about learning more about the secret deeds of your predecessor and what he left behind for you.

The game starts off as a pretty grounded story of a guy becoming a CEO and handling the business however more out there elements are being added to the game's plot which might be a deal breaker for some. Whenever stuff like this happens I feel like a player's experience is heavily affected by the expectations they made about the game when they started getting into it since at the end of the day more often than not no matter how we may feel or how much people complain the devs will make the story they want which they should as they know the full story and they have a story they want to tell and we will all be doing ourselves a favor from trying to influence them to make their story into the one we specifically want. And I'd like to spoil the plot in order to let players set their expectations better so they can decide whether to jump ship or go for the distance. The most out there so far are

For me personally I went into this blind and was really getting hooked and enjoying myself see the mc be a grounded person and making decisions and acting as the CEO. Especially as you got to know and interact with your new secretary who the MC has great chemistry with. But when the more weird things popped up I was originally surprised and disappointed to suddenly find out things were going this way but then decided to keep on playing out of respect for the enjoyment I had so far and readjusted my expectations to account for all the crazy and silly things and in the end... I have to say I rather enjoyed the game and find myself looking forward to what comes next! Still would like someone to make a grounded and thoughtful CEO/Workplace Management game/story though

Gonna give it 5 stars just to encourage the dev not to abandon the project and have more people try the game out.

Rating v0.7.1:

If you're into easter eggs and subtle nods to pop-culture of the last 4 decades or so, you're in for a treat. Yes, this has all the typical things you'd find in any (in-)decent adult game but added are humorous nods to classic tropes, music, and TV shows. This was a blast to read and I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

The Roommate (0.6.6 version) is a decent game with very good points but also some serious flaws. Let's start with the story: it starts as corporative issues, then evolves strangely into corporate secrets, then halfway through decides to add a narrator... it's a bit all over the place, with non-clear goals as to where it is going, and it also has a very strange tempo in the relationships with other characters. On the other side, it has few choices but those are really impactful, and a lot of the conversations are funny and are well written, while others aren't so good.

Character models are quite well done and not all of them are hot models, which adds to the immersion and believability of the story. But facial expressions are a bit missing in many images, sex scenes are done poorly in general, and animations are lackluster. Sound is almost inexistant. And so are bugs, in my playtime I found none.

So, all in all, the game caught me strong at first but, as it advanced, it just lost me. It's not a bad game, that's true, but I don't think it's worth the time considering other available options.

I was going to give this game a three since it didn't stand out at first, ok but generic renders with only one or two standing out, solid sex scenes you can fap to but not top tier, decent plot but nothing haven't read before...
... and then I met Mallory and Mallory introduced me to what she wanted me to do to her.

If you're a lactation fan, you will like this game.

I don't know what it is about this game but it lacks just that little extra to make it a real success.

If we look at the positive things, there is really a lot in the game. The main love interest (the roommate) is a nice and beautiful lady which is very important since she is pretty much the only option in the game. Also, the graphics are quite good.

But there is room for improvement in the dialogues. English is not the strongest point of the dev but despite that I did read most of it. What's not so good about the game is the lack of thoughts and the fact that the girl likes the MC very much but literally does absolutely nothing about it. Even the MC when he hears that she likes him does literally nothing about it. That is a bit of a disappointment. In regards to thoughts, especially since there is one dominant love interest, the thoughts are very important. You could make her much more complex and exciting than she is now, now it comes across as a bit superficial sometimes.

Unfortunately there is also a lack of music, it would add a lot of ambiance and another dimension to the game if music and sound effects were added.

So all in all, there is a lot of upside to the game and a lot of potential. But because of the negative points mentioned earlier, three stars is currently the maximum I can give. However, the improvements are primarily in the text, which should be fairly easy to work on. I am curious how the story will evolve.

v0.6.1

Excellent game, 5/5.

You clearly define your relationships in this game and as long as you're honest, you can't screw up, which is how it should be. The female characters are all attractive in their own way and you genuinely feel the need to help them, or at least if you're a good person, that's the kind of story that I like. Not overly pretentious, (if you're making a realistic game) then keep the characters aspirations relatable and interesting rather than focusing on boring stuff like lore, background of the world...etc. I don't find that kind of info interesting in general video games, let alone adult games which should spend less time on character development and story than a Naughty Dog production.

However, and I find this a very good quality, you complete story arcs or problems fast so you don't dwell on one issue for too long so that it can bother you in the back of the head, yes there is an overarching story direction, but it's not putting pressure on you like a certain somebody that gets fired for being creepy, I'm glad that story arc was wrapped up soon.

Some of the scenes are really hot, although it's a bit of a slow grind, but once the ball gets rolling it gets pretty good, the game is not advertised as animated, so I won't deduct points, in fact I was pleasantly surprised that whilst it's not properly animated, at least the game tries to give you the illusion of animation, if it was advertised as "animated", I'd deduct a star for sure, but I tend to like people a lot more when they're honest with themselves, because that's the kind of person I aspire to be and in this case opposites don't attract each other, I don't appreciate liars. Hypocrites and liars are dead in my eyes and I don't wish to associate with them, thankfully I haven't met a lot irl.

The game has a fair bit of content and over the course of me playing 0.6.1 they already made 2 updates, if I'm not mistaken, it went from 0.6.1 to 0.6.2 to 0.6.3., so the development cycle is not a big wait.

I have to talk about the minor stat management part of this game, it's not that obtrusive, I don't think you can even run out of money if you're trying too, but you can run out of energy, so sometimes take a break, especially if you can't do anything in the cafe. The last stat is lust and at worst my lust has reached the first circle on the right side of the lust meter, I'd recommend masturbating twice (spread out when you reach the red part of the meter) before you get to your first sex scene, if you do that, you won't have to worry about releasing lust.

Keep up the God's work, devs.

I
First and must important. If anyone is deciding not to play this game solely because of the title then you are going to be missing out on a hidden gem.

must say I thought this was going to be a simply game. At the beginning it felt slow. But I want to say during the middle things started to pick up. And to my surprise also. The writing got better. There were maybe 2 sentence structure errors that I found. But that it's well written and it has unexpected humor. If anyone was on looking for someone to support. This would be the person to do so. The story continues to one up itself and the pacing is fast enough to keep your interest and I didn't time how long it actually took me to finish the game. But I want to say it has a good few hours atleast of Content so then plenty to keep anyone entertained.
I myself I signed up for their highest teir.

This is a brilliant harem VN. The writing is top notch and the small details make this shine. The story starts off rather predictably but then opens up into so much more. This VN is really a hidden gem, and I can't wait for updates.

UPDATE: When I first started the game, I was excited for it. But for around 8 different versions, my game saves quit breaking because the developer would change value names and this did not go well with the WT Mod that I wanted to use. After the first two or three times, I was tired of repeating the game from the beginning, but I didn't hate the game yet. After another five or six times, I grew to hate the game with a passion. Now everything about the game looks bad. Models used. Low quality renders. Mediocre looking UI. I'm not sure if I even care about the story or characters anymore. I do know this. I will never ever touch the game again until it is 100% completed. I already haven't touched it in one or two years. Probably around two years or longer. If the game gets completed, I will give it another go and probably increase my rating. But I won't look forward to having to start the game over from the beginning for the 15th time. Also, I just want to say that there are old games with much better quality images and models. So that is why it is sad that this game looks worse than games made five years ago. But this game did entertain me when I first played it. So it does have value. Which is why I will probably increase my rating later on once the game is completed.

OLD REVIEW

I really love this game. The writing is so brilliant and amazing. This game developer could definitely be a novelist, and a really good one at that. I've played games with good writing before that had some funny, witty lines. But this is definitely the best written game in all the 500 games that I've played, and it is way more hilariously funny (but not in a cheap, trashy way like some games are). The spelling and grammar are good too, which I can't say for about 98% of other games. The game progresses in a way that is really good. Some mysteries here and there. Some small, some large. A feel of realism. Good solid events with a good chronological flow. A bunch of different type of characters. You can even choose between eight or so females that you've interviewed for a job. That's some amazing customization! The game is the complete opposite of boring. The MC is also a strong character in every way, and I think that a lot of people will enjoy that. Version 0.6.1 has a lot of content, which is nice because I'm so sick of games that have very little of it. And besides the quantity, it has great quality. The game HUD feels very original, like one made by a passionate developer who just imagined what they wanted and went for it instead of some bored developer who just mimicked what someone else created. I'm glad that nothing in the game is a grind or a chore. Lust and Energy are almost just for show. Just wank if your Lust gets to maximum, until you can start having sex with someone. Energy is usually replenished and in normal levels, but you might need to go to bed early on rare occasions. Money might not be an issue, but I gave myself an extra $10,000 using a save editor online just in case. I think that it's only smart to spend as much money as possible on the targets of your affection. The pregnancy kind of scares me because there are choices to creampie and sometimes you creampie without a choice, so I'm wondering if I will end up a father. In some games, it's a kink for me and I definitely want to see all the females knocked up. But this game is a bit different. I see the female characters as real women and not just as some easy lust objects. The only weak thing that I can think about the game is that some of these females will definitely give you boners but I'm not sure if the sex scenes and/or dialogue will be enough for those wanting a quick fap. I'm not playing the game for the quick fap. I'm just enjoying the immersion of it. That's all the stuff I can think of right now, but this is definitely one of the best games that I have ever played and I totally recommend it. I'll edit this review some more later.

Without any shadow of a doubt the most underrated game on this site. Amazing renders (Kari is a top 5 best looking girl in any game imho), very sexy scenarios and a surprising depth of content for a more obscure game.

This VN was a much better experience than I thought it would be.

Initially I was worried there would be grinding and pointless stat checks, but this was not the case at all. The stats are only there to give you a better idea of your means without having to insert contrivances into the story. Your choices matter, the renders are good, and the animations are decent.

The sex scenes could use some more work in the sense that they don't exactly capture the essence of sexiness: the characters have their general needs, wants, and preferences, but it's generally communicated like they're reading an encyclopedia entry.
There are many writing techniques that can help with this issue, such as having a more ordinary person react to the extraordinary things happening, even a throwaway "Holy shit, I can't believe this" would help.

That being said, I can't speak for the romance path's writing, as I was kind of playing like Tony Stark: fuck everything, but never fuck someone over. Maybe the romance path is better written, and character arcs/changes are better laid out.
The game is a solid 4/5, definitely good, and if this issue is fixed, it will be great!

This review is for version 0.6.1..... a very good story so far. Not the same old tired cliche' stuff really. the renders are great... the women are varied in looks and personalities. That's a great thing in games like this. I look forward to future updates.

Played through the game for the first time and I am really enjoying the story. Often times during games I have to use the skip unread text feature because some authors drone. But this one kept the wording at an appropriate pace for the story. The renders are great however the animation is choppy, but you get the gist. Storylines and arcs are fantastic. It's a lot of fun and hooks you in.

Played through it, for me its a like, but overall the game cant compete with the best around here. For several reasons.

The Models are really nice, especially Kari and Lois are really nice and hot, like them very much, and cant recall to have ever seen models in other games like those two... love them.

But for the "looks" of the game thats kind of the only good thing... The expressions are really bad, especially considering the body, most of the times they are standing like dolls in a shopping center round. Especially Kari before going to work... really strange. The animations are between bad and "ok" overall... maybe you should stop doing them, OR improve them very much, i think youre capable of doing good animations, there are some scenes where you show that you can do better, like kari is riding the MC, the bouncing boobs are nice and such, but these are short loops aswell, best animation and maybe the only good is the one where louis is going to the plane over the vent... thats really nice, if you could keep up THAT qualitiy the whole game the animations would really be a plus, otherwise, the really short loops are more annoying than a plus to the game.

Now the writing, its ok, nothing special, but there is nothing to complain either i would say.

Lets talk about the characters. Another reason why this game cant compete with top games. They are all very boring... with one exception, Louis is the only girl thats at least a little bit interesting, the dialogues with her are the only entertaining so far. And overall she is the one that stood out of every other girl in the game... all the others, including the maingirl Kari are really boring, with no exclusive attributes whatssoever. she is nice... like nearly every girl in the game... and yeah, thats about it. At the start she should act like a naive girl i think, but its coming over like the dumbest girl i have seen in a long time... This is getting better after a while, but other than that, she still is boring in the end... even the sex with her is boring.

But i cant tell exactly why, iam a little bit fond of her regardless what i said of being boring... she is kinda "sweet", looks incedible good. And of course... to be there for the naive innocent girl is always something that works for me. Especially if the girl is a red head too...

So yeah, Kari (despite the fact that she is overall boring so far) and Louis make it worth to play. But thats it...

The story started fine and gets very ridiculous (come on, milk-farms for drugged woman, really?) should have stayed the way it started... become unexptected CEO of a company (with some shady business too of course, but why not staying half-way relasitc in that department?) and now has to run it and search for new employees and maybe get "company-affair" problems that are kinda realistic, not this strange milking thing... i dont judge the "milking" fetish here... iam not into that, but i know others are, so i dont have a problem with that (and you can avoid the scene, so no problem) but the whole story is just so ridiculous... there are other ways to implement that kind of fetish without destroying every seriousness in the whole game.

No Sound or music either, not a big issue for me, i disable the ingame music of the most VNs anyway and play my own. But the good games has good sound and background music thats worth it to listen too.

The game mechanics are pointless too, i figured you decided to implement them and get a real meaning to them later on, but for know, the lust, energy and money meters are complete useless.

You have some good things in this games... the models of Kari and Louis, the dialogues between MC and louis, some animationsa re good too, overall i think they were improving throughout the game... but overall its not enough to get above average i think.

The whole game is not that good, but not bad either. Yeah 3 stars for me. Will watch it, and come back another time, but it wont be a favorite in my book.